Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Kilimanjaro Blind Trust - four year anniversary
Today marks the Kilimanjaro Blind Trust's fourth anniversary, formed when a group of blind climbers summited Mt Kilimanjaro in a team led by Erik Weihenmayer. Read all about the team's assent here.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Some thought provoking facts:
- 80-87 percent of individuals who are blind are in developing countries.
- 80-85 percent of blindness is preventable, though the number of blind caused by infections diseases is decreasing. In the developing world, cataracts are the largest cause amongst adults and hygiene of pregnant mother is the largest cause amongst new-born
- 90-95 percent do not attend school and never become educated
- There are 1 million children and youth worldwide who are deafblind.
- There are 6 million children worldwide who are blind or visually impaired.
These statistics are from a variety of sources, including the WHO, and were collected by Kim Polman during her August 2008 trip to Kenya.
- 80-85 percent of blindness is preventable, though the number of blind caused by infections diseases is decreasing. In the developing world, cataracts are the largest cause amongst adults and hygiene of pregnant mother is the largest cause amongst new-born
- 90-95 percent do not attend school and never become educated
- There are 1 million children and youth worldwide who are deafblind.
- There are 6 million children worldwide who are blind or visually impaired.
These statistics are from a variety of sources, including the WHO, and were collected by Kim Polman during her August 2008 trip to Kenya.
Labels: Statistics
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Integrated Approach to Braille Literacy, An Update
The Kilimanjaro Blind Trust, with its partners, has been setting up an integrated approach of providing new Braille machines to institutions where there are not enough for each blind student to have his or her own machine. 
The Trust has also run training programs to prepare more repair people so that a machine can be repaired closer to home and more quickly. In each of our three target countries we have set up a Spare Parts Depot, a central place where repair people can get spare parts that will always be in stock
KBT founders Paul and Kim Polman visited Nairobi in August 2009 to meet one of KBT's partners, the African Braille Center, and to reunite with Douglas S (who was blinded in the Nairobi American Embassy bombing) and his trusty helper, Joash Aswani, who together climbed Kilimanjaro in 2005 and completed the entire Tour d’Afrique on a tandem bicycle in 2008. Paul and Kim met them to help officially open the Spare Parts Depot for Kenya, where machines can also be repaired. For the occasion, the African Braille Center gathered together advocates for the visually impaired - students whose schools will benefit, blind athletes from Nairobi, blind students f
rom Kenyatta University who are mentoring younger blind children and who are becoming advocates for the visually impaired, Braille repair people, and journalists from various media.
Kim notes that "it was satisfying for us to meet the people in our partner organizations working to
support the blind and visually impaired who also came to the festivities, and who are gradually developing to lead full, independent, satisfying and meaningful lives, thus fulfilling the goals of the Kilimanjaro Blind Trust. We have complete confidence that the African Braille Center can carry out the work effectively and efficiently."
The Trust has also run training programs to prepare more repair people so that a machine can be repaired closer to home and more quickly. In each of our three target countries we have set up a Spare Parts Depot, a central place where repair people can get spare parts that will always be in stock
KBT founders Paul and Kim Polman visited Nairobi in August 2009 to meet one of KBT's partners, the African Braille Center, and to reunite with Douglas S (who was blinded in the Nairobi American Embassy bombing) and his trusty helper, Joash Aswani, who together climbed Kilimanjaro in 2005 and completed the entire Tour d’Afrique on a tandem bicycle in 2008. Paul and Kim met them to help officially open the Spare Parts Depot for Kenya, where machines can also be repaired. For the occasion, the African Braille Center gathered together advocates for the visually impaired - students whose schools will benefit, blind athletes from Nairobi, blind students f
rom Kenyatta University who are mentoring younger blind children and who are becoming advocates for the visually impaired, Braille repair people, and journalists from various media.Kim notes that "it was satisfying for us to meet the people in our partner organizations working to
support the blind and visually impaired who also came to the festivities, and who are gradually developing to lead full, independent, satisfying and meaningful lives, thus fulfilling the goals of the Kilimanjaro Blind Trust. We have complete confidence that the African Braille Center can carry out the work effectively and efficiently."Labels: Efforts, Perkins Brailler
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
